Redondo Beach voters can replace power plant with development through new AES plan

The AES power plant in Redondo Beach could be torn down for good if voters approve a measure to rezone the area for mixed-use and residential development instead. View from the Hermosa Beach pier, Tuesday, July 22, 2014, Hermosa Beach, CA. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)

Pictured in the rendering is what the current Redondo Beach Power Plant could become under new AES zoning regulations that will go before voters in the future. Courtesy AES.

AES unveiled plans Tuesday to get rid of its oceanfront Redondo Beach power plant for good if voters approve a measure that would allow mixed-use development, a hotel and park space in its place.

The power company will begin collecting signatures later this week for a March 2015 ballot initiative that, if approved, would shut down the existing plant by 2020 and rezone the site for mixed-use retail and office space, low-density residential units and acres of park land.

“This is groundbreaking,” Mayor Steve Aspel said. “This is the only surefire way to get rid of the power plant.”

AES, which until now has been pursuing plans to replace the hulking former Southern California Edison Co. structure with a smaller, more efficient plant, must gather signatures from 15 percent of registered voters to place the measure on the ballot.

“In the event that voters don’t support our proposed plan, we would continue pursuing the power plant at the Redondo site,” said AES spokesman Eric Pendergraft. “It could certainly meet our future needs.”

The company submitted plans in November 2012 to construct a new natural-gas, air-cooled facility occupying 13 acres of the 50-acre site. The current facility — which generates 1,310 megawatts, enough to power 2 million homes — was built 60 years ago, although a plant has occupied the property since the 1890s. Because new state regulations ban the use of ocean water to cool steam turbines, the current plant must be retired or rebuilt by 2020.

The power plant, which is situated on the Redondo Beach border with Hermosa Beach, has polarized the community for decades. Critics claim the plant is not only an eyesore along the coast but an air polluter, while the pro-plant faction argues that the facility is vital to provide the densely populated area with reliable power.

However, that might not be the case, even by AES’ own recent admission.

“New power plants are definitely needed, but there are more locations in the region that can meet those needs,” Pendergraft said Tuesday in a nod to AES’ Long Beach and Huntington Beach plants. “Subject to a favorable vote, we are focusing our efforts on developing new power plants on our other two sites.”

Pendergraft said the company has long shown an interest in looking for alternative uses for the Redondo Beach property.

“(Uses) that would allow us to be kept whole economically but result in a future vision for the waterfront that doesn’t have a power plant on it,” he said. “That’s what we’ve come up with with this proposed zoning.”

The so-called Harbor Village Initiative would create new zoning and land use designations for the property on Harbor Drive. However, future specific projects would be subject to City Council and state Coastal Commission approval and an environmental review process, he said.

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“It would be similar to the CenterCal process,” he said. “Measure G (in 2010) was the public vote that established the zoning designation for the pier area. Now, the CenterCal project is the specific development being proposed inside that zoning designation.”

The measure would limit overall development on the site to 600 residences, 250 hotel rooms and 85,000 square feet of commercial space, leaving a minimum of 10 acres of open space.

“By removing the old power plant, views of the harbor and coast would be enhanced and surrounding property values would increase,” Pendergraft said. “This initiative would give Redondo Beach the opportunity to transform the site into a vibrant part of the waterfront, providing jobs, healthy economic growth and new revenue for city services.”

The proposed initiative also would require the creation of a new pedestrian esplanade/public plaza fronting Harbor Drive; continuation of Veterans Parkway, or the greenbelt in neighboring Hermosa Beach, to the coast; a new tree-lined pedestrian promenade along Herondo Street; and four acres of additional open space to be used for a neighborhood park or recreational areas.

“It’s a win-win for everybody,” Pendergraft said. “We get fairly compensated. The city gets a lot of benefits. The residents get a new waterfront with no power plant that’s existed for over a century.”

Aspel called the plan a “smart, responsible proposal that provides enormous benefits.”

The city already has spent $450,000 to formally intervene with AES’ proposal for a new plant on the property, he said.

“We’ve been trying to get rid of that power plant for years,” he said. “This is going to avoid costly legal battles.”

Aspel said the plant’s fate now lies in the hands of voters.

“You’ll have a choice of having a power plant for the next century, or (a mixed-use development),” he said. “It’s a compromise.”